A Taste of Cumbria
Cumbria’s Michelin starred restaurants may grab the headlines but the county is also home to many great food and drink producers. They’re businesses that - between them - offer puddings, cakes, jams, chutneys, pickles, meat products, beers, gins, whisky, bread, pies, confection and much more. Below are a few of them which hopefully you can sample while you’re staying at Howe Foot or take home to enjoy.
Grasmere Gingerbread
This is one of Cumbria’s great food names, the gingerbread first produced for locals and Lakeland tourists in 1854 by a cook called Sarah Nelson. It’s a cross between a biscuit and a cake, pale and crumbly in appearance and chewy on the inside. Made at the old village school in Grasmere, this is also the only place (apart from another shop in Hawkshead and online) where you can buy the confection. Finalist for ‘Specialist Food Retailer of the Year’ at the Cumbria Food Awards 2024.
Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding
Sent and sold across the world, Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding is part of a family which embraces sticky ginger, sticky chocolate and sticky banana puddings, Christmas pudding, sticky figgy pudding, sticky toffee apple crumble, lemon drizzle sponge, sticky toffee sauce and sticky chocolate sauce. Buy them online or head to the Cartmel Village Shop where the puddings were originally made. Other delis and food stores, Waitrose included, stock them too.
Cumbrian Ales
Originating at Loweswater’s Kirkstile Inn, the brewery is now located near Hawkshead. It’s where ‘the best beer in the universe’ is produced, the words of a Guardian travel writer after he had tasted Loweswater Gold, Champion Golden Ale of Britain at CAMRA’s Great British Beer Festival 2011. Other beers in the stable include Esthwaite Bitter, Langdale, Buttermere Beauty, Vanilla Oatmeal Stout and Grasmoor Dark Ale. Buy online or at numerous Cumbrian retailers, or taste in pubs.
Hawkshead Relish
Makers of more than 120 different relishes, pickles and preserves, the family business has, over the years, won some 80 Great Taste Awards. It was North of England regional winner at the Great British Food Awards 2023 while in 2018 its Black Garlic Pickle won three stars at the Great Taste Awards and Black Garlic Ketchup was named Best Condiment/Marinade at the 2018 World Food Innovation Awards. Available online, from the Hawkshead Relish shop in Hawkshead and at many other places.
Stonehouse Smokery
Artisan curers, smokers and roasters, the family business near Carlisle is ‘all about big flavours, sustainability and ethical farming practices’. In March 2024 owner Lee Scrimgeour got to the last two producers in an episode of ‘Aldi’s Next Big Thing’, the Channel 4 series where small scale suppliers pitch their big ideas. At the Great Taste Awards 2022, two of his products - red wine, garlic and fennel salami, and oak smoked coppa - both picked up the maximum of three stars. Available online.
Ginger Bakers
‘Mixing generosity, fairness and adventure to create the perfect cakes for cafés, shops and you’. That’s the ethos of Ginger Bakers whose range of cakes, tarts, loaf cakes and traybakes are made with ‘heaps of love’ at Ginger HQ, Lakeland Food Park, just outside Kendal. Buy the cakes from here, online or at Kendal Farmers’ Market. About 20 Great Taste Awards are now tucked under the Ginger Bakers’ belt. It was also a finalist at the Great British Food Awards 2020 with its Westmorland Pepper Fruit Cake.
Lovingly Artisan
A few steps from Ginger Bakers is this ‘small, creative sourdough bakery’, number one in the Artisan Collective’s Bakers’ Dozen 2024, a list which details the top 13 artisan bakeries in Britain, as voted for by industry experts. Run by husband and wife team, Aidan Monks and Catherine Connor, the bakery sells a range of organic breads, pastries and flours. ‘Food Producer of the Year’ at the Cumbria Food Awards 2024. Buy at the shop at Lakeland Food Park, online or at Kendal Farmers’ Market.
Wagtail Kitchen
Apart from the two above, Lakeland Food Park is also home to Plumgarths Farm Shop, Rinaldo’s speciality coffee, the 2 Sisters Café and Wagtail Kitchen. The latter is a maker of pies, pasties and quiches which you can collect from the kitchen here. Best sellers are steak and ale pie, chicken, ham and leek pie, and Lancashire cheese and onion pie. A selection box of six frozen pies offered as well. Finalist for ‘Food Producer of the Year’ at the Cumbria Food Awards 2024.
Mr Vikki’s
Judging by the awards that have come its way, Mr Vikki’s must be one of the hottest dates in Cumbria. Since Adam Marks set up the business in 2005 his range of pickles, sauces, jams, mustards and chutneys have picked up about 140 Great Taste Awards. Four products have won the maximum three stars at those awards: Black Lime Chutney, Aji Criolo, Chilli Jam and Banana Habanero. The range is sold online and can also be found in a number of Cumbrian (and elsewhere) food shops.
Shed One
You couldn’t make it up. Shakespearian actor meets special paint finisher-turned-teacher in south Korea, moves to Ulverston, starts a gin distillery in the garden shed, moves the business to the local auction mart and then in 2023 won silver at the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence for ‘Experience of the Year’. Owners, Andy and Zoe Arnold-Bennett produce a range of gins (sold online, at Shed One and in independent stores) and offer ‘experiences’ like distillery tours and ’Afternoon G&Tea’ as well. ‘Sustainable/Ethical Business of the Year’ at the Cumbria Food Awards 2024.
Lakeland Artisan
Five brands under its umbrella and almost 100 Great Taste Awards to its name, Lakeland Artisan has certainly come a long way since launching, as Friendly Food and Drink, in 2006. Between the brands - Herdwick Distillery, Cumbrian Delights, Lakeland Liqueurs, Lakeland Hampers and Mawson’s Traditional Soft Drinks - Lakeland Artisan sells a range of jams, marmalades, pickles, mustards, traditional drinks, gins, liqueurs and sauces. Buy online or at a number of outlets in Cumbria.